Very easy Easy Moderate Hard Very hardPut on your running
shoesWalk ten
minutesWalk ten thousand
steps Run a 5KRun a
marathonWrite one sentence Write oneparagraph Write one thousandwords Write a five-thousand-word article Write abookOpen your notes Study for tenminutes Study for threehours Get straight A’s Earn a PhDPeople often think it’s weird to get hyped about reading one page or
meditating for one minute or making one sales call. But the point is not
to do one thing. The point is to master the habit of showing up. The
truth is, a habit must be established before it can be improved. If you
can’t learn the basic skill of showing up, then you have little hope of
mastering the finer details. Instead of trying to engineer a perfect habit
from the start, do the easy thing on a more consistent basis. You have
to standardize before you can optimize.
As you master the art of showing up, the first two minutes simply
become a ritual at the beginning of a larger routine. This is not merely
a hack to make habits easier but actually the ideal way to master a
difficult skill. The more you ritualize the beginning of a process, the
more likely it becomes that you can slip into the state of deep focus
that is required to do great things. By doing the same warm-up before
every workout, you make it easier to get into a state of peak
performance. By following the same creative ritual, you make it easier
to get into the hard work of creating. By developing a consistent
power-down habit, you make it easier to get to bed at a reasonable time
each night. You may not be able to automate the whole process, but
you can make the first action mindless. Make it easy to start and the
rest will follow.
The Two-Minute Rule can seem like a trick to some people. You
know that the real goal is to do more than just two minutes, so it may
feel like you’re trying to fool yourself. Nobody is actually aspiring to
read one page or do one push-up or open their notes. And if you know
it’s a mental trick, why would you fall for it?
If the Two-Minute Rule feels forced, try this: do it for two minutes
and then stop. Go for a run, but you must stop after two minutes. Start
meditating, but you must stop after two minutes. Study Arabic, but you